HELP!!! Restoring Erased Track Data?

[blades]

Help!!

I accidentally erased valuable track data. Is there any way to restore it? Undo is good for only the last action, but I need to go back three steps or my tracks are lost. has anyone found a way to get around the limits of Undo?

what if i pull the card out before i power off and save?

[Flash Harry]

You might (but only might) get it back using a file recovery utility but you will have to plug the card into a PC.

I'd give you a 10% chance.

The alternative - which you will hate me for forever, is to make a backup of your card before you make changes. Oh yes, I know. You've made changes and it's too late.

There are two types of airplane pilot. Those who have landed with the undercarriage up and those who are going to land with the undercarriage up.

See it as a valuable lesson.

Yes, I'm a smug b*stard.

[blades]

seriously? no hope?

[Oldrottenhead]

naw, nut, no way jose, gizza brek, he's dead jim, fuck that fur a gemme a sodjers, basturt, a  wish a backed it up tae ma pc, shite, dae ye no embday frae mi5, naw. yuv lost it

[blades]

here's what happened: i had about 10 seconds of silence at the beginning of the song. so before mastering, i tried to move the track data back, and did this for all four tracks. but i mistakenly forgot to reassign the destination track, so it went to track 1 each time. Track 1 was covered by track 2, which was covered by track 3, which was covered by track 4. what i need to do is Undo three times.

I did Undo, but that's all that's allowed. i still need to do it two more times.

I have not saved - i'm still on the song, and the power is still on. Isn't the data still there? What if i just pulled the card out without allowing it to save?

i am so screwed. help!

[64Guitars]

I have not saved - i'm still on the song, and the power is still on. Isn't the data still there? What if i just pulled the card out without allowing it to save?

NOOOOO!!!!!!  If you remove the card while the power is still on you will almost certainly damage the card beyond repair and possibly the BR too. Never remove a memory card from any device while the power is on.

There is only one level of undo, so there's no chance of the undo feature helping you I'm afraid.

I'm still pondering your dilemma and will let you know if I think of anything but it doesn't look promising. Sorry.

[blades]

64, i appreciate your info: thanks.

in the manual, it says when you do edit functions, the previous data remains on the card without being erased. doing Optimize is what erases it.

if that is so, then without optimization the data is still there. which would imply that it's a question of how to retrieve it -- wouldn't that make sense?

a related question: when i power down, does the song optimize automatically? meanwhile i'm keeping the power on.

[64Guitars]

i had about 10 seconds of silence at the beginning of the song. so before mastering, i tried to move the track data back, and did this for all four tracks. but i mistakenly forgot to reassign the destination track, so it went to track 1 each time.

Moving the track data back is a valid way to remove silence from the beginning of a song. However, for future reference, it's usually easier (and safer) to make your final 2-track mix of the song, export it to a stereo wav file, then trim the ends of that wav file in Audacity or some similar program.

Track 1 was covered by track 2, which was covered by track 3, which was covered by track 4. what i need to do is Undo three times.

Is it safe to assume that you're a beginner with the BR? You talk about copying over "tracks" without mentioning which v-tracks were involved. This suggests that you don't understand v-tracks. If my assumptions are wrong, I apologize, but I'm trying to understand where you're at so that I can offer some suggestions.

If you don't understand v-tracks, you should read my tutorial at:

http://www.geocities.com/sixtyfourguitars/BossBr/Tutorials/V-Tracks_and_Bouncing.html

Each of the four playback tracks is comprised of 8 v-tracks. So, your original track 1 data was/is on one of the 8 v-tracks for track 1 (probably Tr1v1, if you didn't change it). When you accidentally moved tracks 2, 3, and 4 to track 1, it's possible that they were written to one or more of the other track 1 v-tracks and so your original data may be unaffected. But don't get your hopes up too high. If you don't understand v-tracks and just accepted the defaults, then everything probably went to Tr1v1 and over-wrote your tracks as you suggested. Still, at this point it's worth the effort to learn about v-tracks and check each of them (there are 32 in total) to verify what's on them. You might just get lucky and find some of your original tracks.

I have not saved - i'm still on the song, and the power is still on. Isn't the data still there?

The track data (audio) isn't held in memory - it's written directly to the memory card. When you write data to a v-track that already contains data, it isn't actually over-written. To support the undo feature, the new data is written to an empty part of the memory card, so your old data is probably still on the card. Unfortunately, I know of no practical way to retrieve it.

Study up on v-tracks, then check each one to see what's on it. If none of the 32 v-tracks contain any useful data, then I'm afraid you'll probably have to chalk this up to a painful learning experience and move forward. In future, you might want to backup the memory card before doing any track editing (see pages 104 to 106 in the Micro BR manual). Also, try making a 2-track mix of your song and trimming it in Audacity or some similar program instead of moving the track data back. Alternatively, you could make your 2-track mix on the BR, then move back its data rather than the data of the original pre-mix tracks. That's not only safer, but much easier since you only have to perform one move instead of four.

[64Guitars]

in the manual, it says when you do edit functions, the previous data remains on the card without being erased. doing Optimize is what erases it.

if that is so, then without optimization the data is still there. which would imply that it's a question of how to retrieve it -- wouldn't that make sense?

That's correct. However, as I said in my previous message, I know of no practical way to retrieve the data beyond the one undo level. The current track data and the old, unused track data is all scattered throughout the file TAKE_DAT.BR0. However, without a thorough understanding of that file's organization, it's impossible to recognize any of the data and re-assemble it into anything usable.

a related question: when i power down, does the song optimize automatically? meanwhile i'm keeping the power on.

To the best of my knowledge, optimization only occurs when you select Song Optimize from the Utility menu. So switching off the power shouldn't make things worse than they already are.

[blades]

yes i am relatively new to the BR. i've done only a couple of songs and the results have far exceeded my expectations. but this is a great loss. your comments of backing up are noted. i did not realize how easily i could lose everything.

the other v tracks are empty; i never used them in the first place, and i checked to see if anything had gotten moved there, but nothing.

at least it sounds like powering down won't make it harder to do a  retrieval, assuming it's even possible. your explanation of how data is stored, though, makes it sound like retrieval is not really possible.

maybe the Roland technicians have a program? it's my only hope.